Tag Archives: health

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #100 Wayne Koontz, MD – Vaccines and Disease over 50 years

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Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast, we welcome Dr. Wayne Koontz, a founding partner at Salisbury Pediatric Associates in Salisbury North Carolina, where he has spent over 5 decades caring for generations of families with compassion, wisdom, and a deep commitment to community health.

Dr. Koontz earned his Undergraduate degree and his Doctor of Medicine from Wake Forest University, where his early love of science and service began to take shape. He went on to complete his pediatric residency at Dallas Children’s Medical Center, part of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, where he received outstanding training in both academic and clinical pediatrics.

As one of the founding physicians at Salisbury Pediatrics, Dr. Koontz helped to build a model of child-centered, family-oriented care that has served the Rowan County. His commitment to children’s well-being extends beyond the clinic, reflecting a lifelong dedication to preventive medicine, developmental health, and the nurturing of strong physician–family relationships.

It’s an honor to have Dr. Koontz with us today to share his clinical insights as they relate to infection and vaccination from a longevity based pediatric career. Dr. Koontz has a unique perspective to share as his 50 plus years of experience cover the prevaccine infectious disease based practice of pediatric medicine all the way to the current vaccine centric and reduced infectious disease burden reality. That is a timeline worthy of exploration.

So lets explore.

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 15 Issue 25 – Tough Conversations

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Speaking Truth in Love: The Weight of Avoidance in Pediatric Metabolic Health

After completing the second round of our Asthma and Obesity Metabolic Pilot Program at Salisbury Pediatrics, I left the clinic reflecting deeply on what I witnessed. It crystallized a truth that is uncomfortable but undeniable: the greatest health threats to our children today are not infectious or accidental, they are metabolic. Diseases once reserved for adulthood: insulin resistance, fatty liver, hypertension, early vascular aging are now appearing in children who should be free to run, play, and thrive.

In modern society, conversations about weight and metabolic dysfunction have become relatively taboo. This is not to say that children of normal or low weight are immune; they, too, can be at risk. However, the excess-weight group carries the highest statistical burden. Too often, clinicians hesitate to speak truth to families for fear of offending, shaming, or overstepping. In doing so, we risk silence becoming complicity and allowing preventable disease to take root in the very children we are charged to protect.

Much of this epidemic is not born of individual failure but of systemic neglect. Government-funded, poor-quality school meals, cheap processed foods, and relentless marketing of sugar and refined carbohydrates have built an environment where metabolic injury is almost inevitable. When a child’s daily fuel is engineered for shelf life instead of cell life, the outcome is not accidental, it is predictable. Our pilot program lab results are a painful window into that truth…. and a literature review on eczema and anaphylaxis.

Enjoy Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #99 Liz Mumper, MD – Kids and Covid

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Welcome to Dr. M’s Women & Children First Podcast, where we engage with pioneering voices at the intersection of science, healthcare, and the well-being of families.

Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First, we welcome Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, a physician, educator, and thought leader whose career has profoundly influenced the practice of integrative pediatrics.

Dr. Mumper earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Bridgewater College, graduating magna cum laude, before attending the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, where she received her medical degree. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Virginia and served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics. She remained at UVA as an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics from 1997 to 2005, mentoring future physicians and advancing holistic, evidence-based approaches to child health.

Following her time in academia, Dr. Mumper founded The Rimland Center for Integrative Medicine in Lynchburg, Virginia, a clinic dedicated to children with autism spectrum disorders, PANS/PANDAS, allergies, and complex chronic illnesses. Her practice integrates the best of conventional pediatrics with biomedical and functional medicine principles, always guided by compassion and curiosity.

She has been a leading educator with the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs (MAPS) and a frequent international lecturer, teaching clinicians how to recognize and treat the root causes of immune dysregulation, inflammation, and neurodevelopmental challenges.

Dr. Mumper is also the author of the new book Kids and COVID, an insightful exploration of how the pandemic impacted children, physically, emotionally, and developmentally, and what lessons medicine must learn moving forward. In our conversation, we discuss her book in depth, as well as the broader implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for pediatric care, resilience, and future public health policy.

Finally, we dive into the complex topic of vaccines, considering what we’ve learned from the pandemic years and expanding the conversation begun with Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Joel Warsh.

Dr. Mumper’s lifelong dedication to children, her fearless pursuit of truth, and her balanced, science-driven voice make her one of the most respected figures in functional medicine.

Please join me in welcoming my friend and colleague,  Dr. Elizabeth Mumper.

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #97 Paul Offit, MD – Vaccines – What Do We Know in 2025 Part 2?

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Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women & Children First, where we explore the front lines of children’s health and what matters most for our families.

Today I’m honored to bring you Dr. Paul A. Offit, the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He also holds the Maurice R. Hilleman Professorship of Vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Offit is a globally recognized expert in virology and immunology. He has served on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. He’s co-editor of the seminal vaccine textbook Vaccines, and for decades has been one of the clearest scientific voices defending evidence, transparency, and children’s health.

This week, we’ll dig into COVID, vaccine policy, and what’s ahead for children in light of the latest shifts. Among current headlines: Healthy children and pregnant women are no longer being uniformly recommended for COVID vaccines by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a decision that’s stirring debate among pediatricians and public health experts like Dr. Offit. He’s sharply voiced concerns about removing key vaccine recommendations without new data, and about the broader implications of loosening vaccine guidance for the public good.

In this conversation, we’ll cover:

  • What the science says now about bivalent COVID vaccines in kids

  • How recent policy changes affect vaccine access, trust, and safety

  • What parents need to know—what’s changed, what’s stable, and what remains uncertain

This is my third time talking with Dr. Offit, and as always, I expect you’ll leave with clarity, evidence, and questions worth sharing.

I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Let’s dive in.

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 15 Issue 18

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Breastmilk is Dynamic

Cellular and transcriptional diversity over the course of human lactation

This recent 2022 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Nyqiust and colleagues is a site for sore eyes.

It offers a remarkable, high-resolution portrait of how the cellular landscape of human breast milk (hBM) shifts over time. The authors capture something both scientifically rich and uniquely human: the dynamic, living composition of milk as it adapts to the changing needs of mother and child.

The abstract: “Human breast milk is a dynamic fluid that contains millions of cells, but their identities and phenotypic properties are poorly understood. We generated and analyzed single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data to characterize the transcriptomes of cells from hBM across lactational time from 3 to 632 d postpartum in 15 donors. We found that the majority of cells in hBM are lactocytes, a specialized epithelial subset, and that cell-type frequencies shift over the course of lactation, yielding greater epithelial diversity at later points. Analysis of lactocytes reveals a continuum of cell states characterized by transcriptional changes in hormone-, growth factor-, and milk production-related pathways. Generalized additive models suggest that one subcluster, LC1 epithelial cells, increases as a function of time postpartum, daycare attendance, and the use of hormonal birth control. We identify several subclusters of macrophages in hBM that are enriched for tolerogenic functions, possibly playing a role in protecting the mammary gland during lactation. Our description of the cellular components of breast milk, their association with maternal–infant dyad metadata, and our quantification of alterations at the gene and pathway levels provide a detailed longitudinal picture of hBM cells across lactational time. This work paves the way for future investigations of how a potential division of cellular labor and differential hormone regulation might be leveraged therapeutically to support healthy lactation and potentially aid in milk production.” (Nyquist et. al. 2022)

And more information on breastmilk immunology and a recipe.

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 15 Issue 17

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Inflammaging from a Population View

In a landmark study published in Nature Aging on July 7, 2025, researchers challenge a cornerstone of modern gerontology by showing that inflammaging, chronic, age-associated low-grade inflammation, is not universal across all human populations. The abstract states the following: “Inflammaging, an age-associated increase in chronic inflammation, is considered a hallmark of aging. However, there is no consensus approach to measuring inflammaging based on circulating cytokines. Here we assessed whether an inflammaging axis detected in the Italian InCHIANTI dataset comprising 19 cytokines could be generalized to a different industrialized population (Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study) or to two indigenous, nonindustrialized populations: the Tsimane from the Bolivian Amazon and the Orang Asli from Peninsular Malaysia.

We assessed cytokine axis structure similarity and whether the inflammaging axis replicating the InCHIANTI result increased with age or was associated with health outcomes. The Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study was similar to InCHIANTI except for IL-6 and IL-1RA. The Tsimane and Orang Asli showed markedly different axis structures with little to no association with age and no association with age-related diseases. Inflammaging, as measured in this manner in these cohorts, thus appears to be largely a byproduct of industrialized lifestyles, with major variation across environments and populations.” (Franck et. al. 2025)

The research team analyzed 19 cytokines in over 2,800 individuals from four diverse populations: two industrialized cohorts: Italy’s InCHIANTI and the Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study (SLAS); two non-industrialized, Indigenous groups: the Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon and the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia.

In Italy and Singapore, the industrialized regions noted classic inflammaging signatures with inflammatory markers like IL‑6, TNF-α, and CRP increased with age, and correlated strongly with age-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and kidney disease….. and more on inflammaging…

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 15 Issue 16

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A Rooted Approach to Modern Medicine: The Vision Forward

My emerging and chronically iterating philosophy of medicine is a rising structural entity rooted between ancient healing wisdom and modern scientific insight. It is layered with root cause immunometabolomic thinking and built upon anthropological foundations. As a pediatrician, educator, and onion peeling thinker, I believe that a medical approach grounded in compassion, prevention, and the pursuit of root causes is the way forward. Medicine is not just about treating disease but about reshaping the very terrain in which illness arises. This can and must start with our women and children.

At the heart of this vision is a belief in the power of systems biology and our deep interconnectedness. The human body cannot be understood or healed through isolated parts or siloed provider experiences. We must move beyond symptom suppression and toward an understanding of the why behind disease. Why does a child struggle with allergies, ADHD, or autoimmune illness? What factors in the environment, diet, stress response, or microbial ecosystem have altered their trajectory? Why are the governmental and NGO leaders not guiding us towards a benevolent goal of whole child health? These are the questions that shape and guide our practice….and a literature review.

Dr. M

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